Kasa Smart Light & Unifi IoT Network

March 18, 2020

Smart light

Like many nerds I am using Ubiquiti’s Unifi networking gear. As such I have a VLAN and wireless network setup specifically for my IoT devices. Recently I purchased a TP-Link Smart Light (KL130) and wanted to get it setup on my IoT network. Unfortunately it failed to connect as the process got stuck after providing the IoT WiFi connection details.

I was able to get it working without a problem to my non IoT network which lead me to the conclusion that there was a restriction on the IoT network that was preventing the setup to complete.

A Solution

The fix for me was to Enable Multicast Enhancement on the IoT network. After the setup process has completed you can turn that setting back off and the light will continue to work.

Another Solution

The second time I tried to add another light I was unsuccessful even with Enable Multicast Enhancement on. Maybe the firmware had been updated or the UniFi controller upgrades have made a difference? Who knows, this time around I had to unhide my IoT WiFi network’s SSID. Once that was visible the bulb connected first time.